Turn-Undead is a Halloween turn-based game released on October 7, 2014 as a browser game, on October 25, 2017 on the App Store, and November 1, 2017 on Google Play. The player controls a vampire hunter who is in search of his evil nemesis, Dracula.[2]

This game was first announced on September 18, 2014, and is Nitrome's first Halloween game since Stumped. The game was made Nitrome Touchy compatible upon release.

Contents

Gameplay

Gameplay in Turn-Undead is similar to other Nitrome puzzle platformers such as Dirk Valentine and the Final Ninja series. However, the player can only move in sprite-wide increments, known as 'turns', and everything else on the screen - enemies, projectiles, and platforms - move only when the player moves in these turns. The player also carries two golden crossbows that fire wooden stakes, which kill most of the undead enemies in the game, but also abide by the turn-based movement style. They can be fired at certain walls for use in climbing.

In each level the player can pick up a cross that doubles the amount of points the receives at the end of that level, though this cross is often position in difficult to reach areas.

Levels

Level 1

Input

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Level 1 introduces crosses and vampires. To completely the level the player should jump over a platform to climb a ladder and then proceed right while jumping over all obstacles in their way. To collect the cross in the level, the player should shoot stakes into the platform with the cross on it to create a ladder which they can use to climb up and take the cross.

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Turn-Undead level 1 (with holy bonus)

Level 2

To complete the level, the player simply needs to climb down two ladders while shooting enemies they come in contact with, shoot stakes into the platform on which the exit is placed, climb up those stakes and walk into the exit. To collect the cross in this level, the player needs to shoot stakes into both walls near the exit to create a ladder then use the head of one goblin to climb up the ladder for the platform which contains the cross.

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Turn Undead - level 2 cross

Level 3

Input

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Level 3 introduces movable objects, buttons, and gates. To complete the level the player needs to push the crate to the wall, hop on top of it, fire a stake to get on top of the platform, and then fall downwards. The player then has to go right a climb a ladder with the option of either killing or avoiding the enemies they encounter, jump over the side of the platform, push the nearby pumpkin onto the button present in the level, climb up a ladder, fire stakes into the wall to get to the gate, and then fall through the gate and walk into the exit.

To obtain the cross in this level, the player needs to get to the area with the pumpkin, fire a stake into the platform above the pumpkin and go upwards, then climb down the ladder and touch the cross.

Click [show] to see this video

Turn Undead - level 3 cross

Level 4

Input

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Level 4 introduces doors. To complete the level the player needs to proceed right while either destroying or avoiding all vampires in their path, shoot stakes into the wall on the far right to make a ladder, climb up that ladder, jump to the platform on the left, and walk into the exit. To collect the cross in this level the player should fire three stakes into the wall and climb up them, use up turns till all vampires are on the ground, walk on top of one and use it to get to the raised platform, jump up and fire a stake into the platform, and use that stake to get to the raised platform and then touch the cross.

Click [show] to see this video

Turn-Undead level 4 (with cross)

Level 5

To complete level 5 the player needs to proceed forward and jump over top or kill the nearby zombie, fire a stake into the raised platform, then climb upward to get onto the ledge on the raised platform. The player then needs to either kill or avoid the vampire, jump over a ledge, kill or avoid the next vampire, and then go over the side of that platform while either timing to land on top of the zombies below or avoid them. The player then needs to jump over top of the zombies (achieved by jumping onto the head of one then jumping again and moving one space forward), use stakes as a ladder to climb up the far right platform, and walk into the exit.

To obtain the cross in this level, the player simply needs to kill the zombie near the raised platform when they are close to the enemy, walk over and touch the cross, then kill the zombie again and complete the level.

Obstacles

Gates - Activated by buttons and come in two sizes the first being small with the player simply needing to stand on the button to keep them open and the second being larger and requiring the player to wait a certain amount of turns before they can pass by safely.

Announcements

September 18, 2014 - Turn-Undead is announced to be in development, an image for it is shown in a Nitrome blog post.

Glitches

Game over/Level complete pause glitch

If the player pauses the level when the "game over/level complete" screen is shown, the screen will disappear. The player will not be in the level, and cannot interact with anything. The pause menu will only contain the music, sound and resume buttons. This forces the player to refresh the page the game is being played on, as they are unable to continue the game. This is similar to the glitch in changeType().

Nitrome Touchy version

Turn-Undead was made Nitrome Touchy compatible upon release, and used the same controls as changeType().

Turn Undead: Monster Hunter

Turn Undead: Monster Hunter is a mobile port[3] of the game released on the App Store on October 25, 2017[4] and on Google Play on November 1, 2017[5]. Porting of the game was handled by Thomas Ferrer.

Changes

Crosses spin.

The cross collected icon is different.

Some parts of levels were graphically redone with a castle design.

Gargoyles that shoot fireballs were introduced.

Version history

Release version

This version was released on the App Store on October 25, 2017, and on Google Play on November 1, 2017, and is labelled Version 1.0 on the App Store and 0.1 on Google Play. It is the initial version of the game.

App Store update version 1

This update was released on October 27, 2017, and is labelled Version 1.1. This update fixes some glitches, add achievements, and adds a remove ads in-app purchase[6]

App Store update version 2

This update was released on November 23rd, 2017, and is labelled Version 1.2. This update fixes minor bugs and adds iPhone X support[7].

Development

Beta elements

On Markus Heinel's website in his portfolio[9] is an example of art he did for Turn-Undead, and in this example Dracula appears to have lighter skin, no red outline, and be in a walking stance. In the final game Dracula has slightly darker skin, a red outline, and consistently hovers.